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A sparse crowd makes its way down Washington Street in 1968

It's
the longest street in town. And one of the longest in the state.
Washington Street starts downtown and runs all the way to Rhode Island.
Circuitously at times, but it gets there. Here we see a downtown photo
of "Wash", as the cabbies call it, taken in 1968 shortly after Planet of the Apes opened.
The film tells the story about a space crew who crash onto a strange
planet in the future. As the story evolves, the crew, thinking it had
arrived at a desolate outpost, happens upon a society in
which apes have evolved into humanoids possessing both intelligence and
speech. These ape-humans are running the show while subservient humans
are draped in animal skins.

Is the Washington Street story much
different? Land on Washington Street today and see the beautified Boston, all cleaned up, pricy consumerism everywhere, but populated by the New Human. The
males' waistlines have devolved to crotch level, and they appear disjointed and
disheveled like a pile of empty laundry bags. The females of the species are draped in
clothing so revealing that all mystery has been removed. Body parts
considered sacrosanct by their anatomical forbears, are fodder for
studs, piercings and markings on this New Human. Tongue rings, eyelid
rings and body art adorn these creatures seen today on Washington Street
and elsewhere. Standards of beauty change. But that was
now. This is then.

Dirty Old Boston being what it is, liked the
name Washington Street so much that it called no less than three
other local streets by the same name. This typically gets a guffaw from
visitors and the DOB Cynical Grimace from locals.

In Dorchester, Washington Street spans a 2.8 mile range from Blue Hill Avenue near Geneva to Dot Ave near the southernmost point of the city.

In Brighton,
Washington Street begins at the Brookline line and runs for about four
miles to the Newton boundary line. It continues through Newton out to
Wellesley. It is the main East-West Street in Brighton.

But in Charlestown,
Washington Street begins at a dead end near the intersection of Austin
Street and New Rutherford Avenue and runs a mere three blocks to Harvard
Street.